Australian Dawn wrote:It seems to me Frothers, Random Platypus, and TMP are all slowly becoming ghost towns. I wonder if this isn't the beginning of the end for all miniature forums. They just don't seem to be popular anymore. Even old time Frothers like Stedders and Duff seem to pop in less and less.And when Frothers conked out for a bit a while back I thought it was all over.

I don't get it. Forums beat Face Book hands down IMHO but I seem to be in the minority.

In all honesty, forums have been struggling for a while. It's because of blogs either - that's a sort of odd suggestion as blogs are not really 'interactive' as such. More like a diary.

So if people want interactivity it's proper social media and forums. Facebook is the biggest winner there. I know a load of folk that don't bother with forums anymore because of the ease of access of facebook.

Sadly what many people don't realise, and I agree with Brony here, is that Facebook is utterly useless when it comes to longevity of threads or images. So you may see a fantastic paint job on a mini that you also have. When it comes to you wanting to paint it and go to look for it - which in some cases could just be a matter of hours, you struggle to find it again. Especially in massively subscribed groups.

In all honesty RP has grown beyond a forum as well, other types of media communications are used. We have plans for 2 if not 3 tables at Salute this year - with people coming from other continents to help run them. To me, having a forum that 'buzzes' isn't the be all and end all. If RP only had 30 members but we gained as much as we do from it as we do now, I'd be happy, and absolutely fine with that.

So much 'traffic' is drive by, if you have very few activists involved in actually doing stuff then that's when things fall down.

After RP my go to place is LAF. Mainly because of the diversity and I am mainly a 28mm chap so I could also see why that may not appeal to some. I've never really bothered with TWW but then that was born out of TMP, and I have less than ten posts to my name there - since first visiting in the early 00's.

[quote="Australian Dawn"]It seems to me Frothers, Random Platypus, and TMP are all slowly becoming ghost towns. I wonder if this isn't the beginning of the end for [i]all[/i] miniature forums. :(They just don't seem to be popular anymore. Even old time Frothers like Stedders and Duff seem to pop in less and less.And when Frothers conked out for a bit a while back I thought it was all over.

I don't get it. Forums beat Face Book hands down IMHO but I seem to be in the minority.[/quote]

In all honesty, forums have been struggling for a while. It's because of blogs either - that's a sort of odd suggestion as blogs are not really 'interactive' as such. More like a diary.

So if people want interactivity it's proper social media and forums. Facebook is the biggest winner there. I know a load of folk that don't bother with forums anymore because of the ease of access of facebook.

Sadly what many people don't realise, and I agree with Brony here, is that Facebook is utterly useless when it comes to longevity of threads or images. So you may see a fantastic paint job on a mini that you also have. When it comes to you wanting to paint it and go to look for it - which in some cases could just be a matter of hours, you struggle to find it again. Especially in massively subscribed groups.

In all honesty RP has grown beyond a forum as well, other types of media communications are used. We have plans for 2 if not 3 tables at Salute this year - with people coming from other continents to help run them. To me, having a forum that 'buzzes' isn't the be all and end all. If RP only had 30 members but we gained as much as we do from it as we do now, I'd be happy, and absolutely fine with that.

So much 'traffic' is drive by, if you have very few activists involved in actually doing stuff then that's when things fall down.

After RP my go to place is LAF. Mainly because of the diversity and I am mainly a 28mm chap so I could also see why that may not appeal to some. I've never really bothered with TWW but then that was born out of TMP, and I have less than ten posts to my name there - since first visiting in the early 00's.

I find facebook pretty handy for smaller groups where a discussion won't get washed away in few hours by loads of other noise. Other forums are a bit hit and miss but I never really used them anyway to begin with for wargaming purposes.

I find facebook pretty handy for smaller groups where a discussion won't get washed away in few hours by loads of other noise. Other forums are a bit hit and miss but I never really used them anyway to begin with for wargaming purposes.

Facebook appears to be bollocks for worthwhile information/discussion (so, brilliant for the minuscule attention span generation and advertisers). Most of us still hanging around fora are the old topers at closing time hoping for a lock in but knowing that the new copper in the village isn't one of us and will be in at 11 to make sure it all shuts down.

We know most of what we want to know and the 'young people' have Google and Wikipedia so don't need us. It was exciting when it was new, discovering there were people we liked hundreds/thousands of miles away (and people we hated). That's gone. It's become commonplace.

So why bother with fora?

Shoot the breeze?

I have no beef with RP but there is little that attracts me there. TMP is well, it's TMP lite in info and personality, and all that's left are the old gits round the dart board who everyone warned you about when you were too young to go in. TWW is okay but needs to double its active participants to get a buzz going. You should go - at least it will be a Humph free zone according to his miserable attitude towards Mike. LAF? Too twee, too 28mm, too painty, too fucking boring, too fucking German. I don't mind Germans, but I do have a problem with 'There is a rule you broke.' 'I know but it was an accident.' 'You broke the rule.' 'But only a little bit and I said sorry.' 'You broke the rule.' 'Look okay, I know. I'm sorry, I won't do it again.' 'You won't break the rule again. This thread is locked. You will be banned. We must have rules and the rules must be obeyed. I moderate the rules consistently and firmly. YOU BROKE THE RULE!'Maybe fora are dead.

Facebook appears to be bollocks for worthwhile information/discussion (so, brilliant for the minuscule attention span generation and advertisers). Most of us still hanging around fora are the old topers at closing time hoping for a lock in but knowing that the new copper in the village isn't one of us and will be in at 11 to make sure it all shuts down.

We know most of what we want to know and the 'young people' have Google and Wikipedia so don't need us. It was exciting when it was new, discovering there were people we liked hundreds/thousands of miles away (and people we hated). That's gone. It's become commonplace.

So why bother with fora?

Shoot the breeze?

I have no beef with RP but there is little that attracts me there. TMP is well, it's TMP lite in info and personality, and all that's left are the old gits round the dart board who everyone warned you about when you were too young to go in. TWW is okay but needs to double its active participants to get a buzz going. You should go - at least it will be a Humph free zone according to his miserable attitude towards Mike. LAF? Too twee, too 28mm, too painty, too fucking boring, too fucking German. I don't mind Germans, but I do have a problem with 'There is a rule you broke.' 'I know but it was an accident.' 'You broke the rule.' 'But only a little bit and I said sorry.' 'You broke the rule.' 'Look okay, I know. I'm sorry, I won't do it again.' 'You won't break the rule again. This thread is locked. You will be banned. We must have rules and the rules must be obeyed. I moderate the rules consistently and firmly. YOU BROKE THE RULE!'Maybe fora are dead.

I think a lot of stuff which used to be on fora has been replaced by blogs, but yes LAF and to a lesser extent TWW have a decent amount of traffic although there is a limit to how many photos of other peoples 28mm figures I can bear to look at. Amongst the tangospam, porn and neo-nazis there are one or two threads on TMP which are OK.

But overall I suspect forum participation has always been a very minority activity, going right back to the good old days of the rec.games.miniatures.historical usenet group in the early 90s before the www was anything but an academic toy. I still see at least two of the other contributors from there popping up here and there, 25 years on, so perhaps the three of us are just slightly deranged:)

I think a lot of stuff which used to be on fora has been replaced by blogs, but yes LAF and to a lesser extent TWW have a decent amount of traffic although there is a limit to how many photos of other peoples 28mm figures I can bear to look at. Amongst the tangospam, porn and neo-nazis there are one or two threads on TMP which are OK.

But overall I suspect forum participation has always been a very minority activity, going right back to the good old days of the rec.games.miniatures.historical usenet group in the early 90s before the www was anything but an academic toy. I still see at least two of the other contributors from there popping up here and there, 25 years on, so perhaps the three of us are just slightly deranged:)

Despite Facebook I do still think there is a place for discussion forums, that they offer something that Facebook doesn't.So I can't account for the down slump.I suspect it's due to the fact that it's a small hobby.Look across all the forums - there's a LOT of commonality in users. Of course, they don't represent the entirety of the hobby but they probably do represent a good majority of gamers who can be arsed to go on the various fora.Just spread too thinly, I imagine.This place is as good as dead, RP never really took off, TWW is struggling, TMP is probably still one of the biggest (despite what the 6 people still using this forum want to believe), and LAF is probably the healthiest of all.It may also be due to age of gamers. Most of us are 20+ and we all probably have jobs and families, so our hobby time is limited and, consequently, the amount of things we can find to say about gaming is limited - so there's just not much to post. I find battle reports a bit dull to read, I can summon only a limited amount of motivation to post 'That's great!' to a few painted miniatures, and the world is full enough already with advertising and marketing for me to be bothered to click on some promotional/new release post.So not only are there not that many people using the fora but there's not that much to say. And all that spread over several different fora.That's the best explanation I have for it.

Despite Facebook I do still think there is a place for discussion forums, that they offer something that Facebook doesn't.So I can't account for the down slump.I suspect it's due to the fact that it's a small hobby.Look across all the forums - there's a LOT of commonality in users. Of course, they don't represent the entirety of the hobby but they probably do represent a good majority of gamers who can be arsed to go on the various fora.Just spread too thinly, I imagine.This place is as good as dead, RP never really took off, TWW is struggling, TMP is probably still one of the biggest (despite what the 6 people still using this forum want to believe), and LAF is probably the healthiest of all.It may also be due to age of gamers. Most of us are 20+ and we all probably have jobs and families, so our hobby time is limited and, consequently, the amount of things we can find to say about gaming is limited - so there's just not much to post. I find battle reports a bit dull to read, I can summon only a limited amount of motivation to post 'That's great!' to a few painted miniatures, and the world is full enough already with advertising and marketing for me to be bothered to click on some promotional/new release post.So not only are there not that many people using the fora but there's not that much to say. And all that spread over several different fora.That's the best explanation I have for it.

It seems to me Frothers, Random Platypus, and TMP are all slowly becoming ghost towns. I wonder if this isn't the beginning of the end for all miniature forums. They just don't seem to be popular anymore. Even old time Frothers like Stedders and Duff seem to pop in less and less.And when Frothers conked out for a bit a while back I thought it was all over.

I don't get it. Forums beat Face Book hands down IMHO but I seem to be in the minority.

It seems to me Frothers, Random Platypus, and TMP are all slowly becoming ghost towns. I wonder if this isn't the beginning of the end for [i]all[/i] miniature forums. :(They just don't seem to be popular anymore. Even old time Frothers like Stedders and Duff seem to pop in less and less.And when Frothers conked out for a bit a while back I thought it was all over.

I don't get it. Forums beat Face Book hands down IMHO but I seem to be in the minority.